The founder of Telegram publicly criticizes France's arrest of him for the first time after being arrested

In the early morning of September 6, Pavel Durov, the founder and CEO of social media "Telegram" who was previously arrested in France, posted a long article on "Telegram". This is his first public statement after being arrested.

In the post, Durov described France's arrest of him as "surprising" and "wrong". He said he was surprised to be held responsible for content posted on "Telegram" by others. He believes that if the French government finds problems, it should file a complaint with his company. It can contact the "hotline" he helped establish or contact "Telegram"'s representative in the EU instead of arresting him.

Durov also wrote that "using laws from before the smartphone era to charge a CEO with crimes committed by third parties on his managed platform is a wrong approach." He denied the claim that the "Telegram" platform is an "anarchist paradise" and said that "Telegram" deletes millions of harmful posts and channels every day.

Agence France-Presse mentioned that at the end of the post, Durov's tone softened. He said that the surge in the number of "Telegram" users has caused many problems, making it easier for criminals to abuse the platform. He hopes that the events in August can make "Telegram" and the entire social networking industry safer and stronger.

Looking back on the incident, on the evening of August 24, Durov was arrested by the French police at Le Bourget Airport on the outskirts of Paris. His detention period was as long as 96 hours. On August 28, after the end of the detention period, Durov was handed over to the Paris court. After two investigative judges interrogated him for several hours, they decided to bring multiple charges against him. On the same day, after the end of detention, Durov was prosecuted and was released on bail under judicial supervision, but he was not allowed to leave France.

Relevant departments of the French government are investigating illegal activities on the "Telegram" platform such as fraud, drug trafficking, organized crime, child ***ography, and promoting terrorism. Durov is accused of not taking corresponding measures to prevent these crimes. "Telegram" currently has about 900 million users. It is one of the main social media platforms in Russian-speaking regions and also an important platform for both Russia and Ukraine to speak out during the Ukraine crisis. This incident has attracted widespread attention from the international community. Everyone is waiting to see how the situation will develop in the future.